Conroe jewelry store owner Mitch Wilkins surprised himself that day in 2012 when he grabbed the arms of a robber pointing a gun at him.

He was just as surprised to learn that his action with the gunman could help authorities solve violent robberies elsewhere, including one in Galveston County that had gone cold.

The man charged with shooting at Wilkins, 33-year-old Armando Romero, was sentenced this week to 60 years in prison. He was convicted of aggravated armed robbery in the Oct. 10, 2012, incident.

Romero had sent bullets whizzing within inches of Wilkins, officials said, and had repeatedly bashed the store owner in the head with the gun.

Wilkins, 59, said he was not versed in fighting or martial arts but somehow managed to twist Romero's arms such that the two bullets he fired narrowly missed both the shop owner and his mother, who worked there. The bloody pistol whipping on Wilkins' head did not end until he squeezed Romero's crotch so hard that he dropped his gun and fled, authorities said.

Two accomplices who had been restraining Wilkins' mother, firing off one shot with another gun, left with him.

Hiding in a field

Romero was found hiding in a field with grass thrown over him and Wilkins' blood covering his bright blue shirt, prosecutors said. One of the accomplices, 35-year-old Kenia Vasquez, was arrested after a bystander followed her and pointed her out to authorities. The third person has never been identified.

To prove the robbery victim's blood was on that shirt, authorities did DNA testing to rule out Romero's blood. That sample taken from Romero has now linked him to the robbery of a pawn shop in Galveston County in 2009 - a case that had long grown cold, officials said.

And Vasquez, who earlier pleaded guilty in exchange for a 20-year sentence, has been talking to federal investigators about robberies in other states, Montgomery County prosecutor Tyler Dunman said.

"An ATF agent came down and talked with Vasquez. She was forthcoming about several cases that have occurred over the last couple of years in Georgia and North Carolina. Two involved other pawn shops that lost thousands of dollars in goods," Dunman said. These cases remain under investigation.

2009 Galveston robbery

In the 2009 Galveston County robbery, three armed men entered a pawn shop in Dickinson in the early morning. They attacked two store employees and left them bound, face down, on the floor. Eight customers who entered the store during the robbery also were met by the gun-wielding men, tied up and put in the storeroom. Some $200,000 in merchandise was taken.

A sample of a blood smear was taken from the arm of one of the victims who had been restrained.

The DNA did not match any of the victims, and investigators believed it could have come from one of the robbers who were smashing the glass display cases. The sample was entered into the Texas Department of Public Safety databank but did not hit any matches - until Romero's DNA sample was entered.